So I have recently purchased an old canadian 15' Albacore.. 1988... Manufacture# 38959 and I was hoping you might be able to help me with some of the rigging that I have inherited upon purchase. It is picture heavy so I appreciate your patience!

First two photo shows gooseneck and boom. Should the gooseneck have a collar at all to hold the boom in or is held in solely by the sails being hoisted? Am I missing something?

On this boom, there is a tack pin but my sail also seems to have a grommet for a cunningham but no rigging for it? Was a cunningham usually part of this rigging?

Is my boom vang improperly mounted to the mast and reversed? There is a self-cleating block and I remember always pulling UP for the boom vang and how its rigged requires to hoist down...

Is this the correct rigging for my traveller? I feel like the shackle part of the block should be connected to the end of my main sheet, and the pulley side on the traveller...? In this photo, as difficult it is to see... it is rigged in reverse... whereby the main sheet is pulled through the pulley and knotted, and the block is hitched on to the traveller.

Finally... what should be used with this half cleat? This sailboat has one in the front which works with the centreboard... what line would work in tandem with this little guy found in the stern, after of the centreboard housing...

Picture #1: That is correct. The boom is held solely by the gooseneck.

Picture #2: Modern sails do not use a tack pin. Instead they have a bevelled cut near the tack and attach to the slot in the mast with a sail "nut" or "slug". The outhaul tension keeps the boom from falling off the mast. If the sail you have has a grommet at the tack, it should be pinned with the boom tack pin, but you may want to add a removable retaining strap around the mast to keep the boom from falling off the gooseneck at the dock.

Picture #3 & #4: The vang probably is reversed. You should seriously consider upgrading that to a 16:1 cascading system. The Albacore mainsail is very powerful in winds above 10 knots. There are numerous methods of rigging the vang, but a 2:1 at the boom, plus a floating 2:1 followed by a 4:1 double block with control lines led under the thwart to each side are the best setups.

Picture #5. That is not a traveller. It is a mainsheet bridle with a turning block. There is a becket on the aft boom block to make the mainsheet system 2:1. It is highly recommended that you convert that to a 1:1 mainsheet for better response. If you switch to 1:1 sheeting then you will need to use a "split bridle" system. The simplest way is to split the mainsheet cover from its core and lead the core to one side of the boat and the cover to the other side of the boat. There are better ways to accomplish this, but this method will get you started.

Picture #6. That little hook aft of the centreboard trunk is to hold the transom flaps closed. They should be rigged with shock cord and pulled tight to the hook to keep them closed while underway. However it appears that your boat somewhere in its history someone has fibreglassed over the transom flaps. So that hook is an orphan.

Henry,Thank you very much! You were VERY helpful!I think I will try and devise a collar with two grommets to serve a function of keeping the boom to mast... utilizing the tack pin.I will certainly look into the cascading system as this boom vang has been troublesome to operate.

You've lost me a little on the part about 1:1 mainsheet. Is this essentially what you mean?

That's a 2:1 mainsheet with a bridle.That's how your boat was rigged except instead of dead-ending it to the boom with a clip it would have been tied to the becket on the aft boom block.

Making a 1:1 mainsheet means dispensing with the bridle and second floating block.

The simplest form of 1:1 mainsheet is a "split tail" design. The mainsheet rope is a double braided line. It has a braided core and a braided cover. If you pry the cover braid apart you can expose the core and with a pick or awl you can pull the core right out of the cover. If you do this about three feet from the end of the line you can have three feet of core exposed, sticking out from a hole in the cover like a disembowelled worm. The cover will then be rather limp and hollow. If you then lead the cover to one side of the boat and the core to the other side of the boat you have a mainsheet that is 1:1, requiring half its length for a pull from fully out to boom-on-centre. the 2:1 system, because is has a double purchase at the aft end of the boom requires twice as much rope to operate in its range.

There are fancier ways to go about this but this simple split tail system is functional enough to work.